A growing list of Ontario municipalities say they don’t want wind turbines in their communities, but the province’s energy minister isn’t about to give them a veto on new green energy projects.

Energy Minister Bob Chiarelli says it’s a very “active public policy issue” in Ontario, one that’s complicated and will take a longterm strategy to solve.

Speaking to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario(AMO) in Ottawa Tuesday, Chiarelli said, “We do not believe in an absolute veto for municipalities because there is a responsibility of the municipal sector, whether it’s landfill, whether it’s transmission lines, to participate in the obligation and responsibility to have an energy system that makes sense.”

The energy minister, along with twenty-one other provincial cabinet members, including the premier, took part in what was dubbed the ‘bear pit’ session of the three-day conference Tuesday afternoon.

Question topics ranged from energy to inter-city transport, from creating a provincial bicycle strategy to the Ontario’s arbitration process.

The energy file has been a hot button for the governing Liberals and the government’s much debated and much criticized Green Energy Act — held high by former premier Dalton McGuinty and considered a cerntrepiece of his premiership — was bound to make an appearance.

Earlier this month, over sixty municipalities declared themselves unwilling to be host communities to wind turbines, demanding control over whether or not new projects will go in their communities.

“When are you going to follow through on your promise to return planning responsibility to municipalities?” a delegate asked Tuesday.

In response to the question, Chiarelli said a new procurement process for green energy projects is coming, to be finalized by October.

He added that this will require any company bidding on energy projects to negotiate with municipalities first, and be more targeted in terms of site requirements to enable competition in the bidding process.

If a company doesn’t have an arrangement with a municipality “it will be virtually impossible for them — not impossible but virtually impossible – for them to be able to win the project,” he said.

“We have had discussions with AMO, we’ve had discussions with various leaders. And we believe that at the end of the day, and the end of this long- term energy plan review, when we finalize the very specifics of how the procurement will work, it will be highly unlikely you will have an unwilling host.”

Chiarelli also said they’ll be changing assessment laws in Ontario for existing and future wind sites to generate more revenue from taxes —”real incentives for municipalities to participate. We believe this will work.”

The province’s Opposition isn’t so keen on restructuring the Green Energy Act, however; the Progressive Conservatives want it scrapped.

In an address to the hundreds of delegates on the first day of the AMO conference, Tory leader Tim Hudak blasted the government for its work on green energy and said energy rates have become one of the biggest costs of doing business in Ontario.

“What was once an economic strength for our province has become one of our greatest weaknesses,” Hudak said. “It is time to put an end to the failed Green Energy Act experiments that are driving up power costs and replace it with an energy policy based on what’s best for the economy.”